Friday Various government handouts and bankruptcy protection legislation have come to an end, or soon will. Businesses that have been technically insolvent for over a year will begin to close their doors. Many will go under because they cannot pay the rent that they owe for the period when they were forbidden to trade. They desperately need a renegotiation … [Read more...]
Eight Hours Sleep
Thursday About three months ago, with the doors of my restaurant shuttered by government edict and, accordingly, unable to pay rent, I was given three days to get out by the landlord. It was a grim time. It was hard to swallow that an iconic business with a thirty-six year track record of making money had suddenly, unexpectedly and inexplicably, moved into … [Read more...]
Brother Can You Spare a Dime?
Tuesday It is painful to watch the struggles of those blindsided by what is now a recession. Does one harden one’s heart and look the other way? That is easy to say, but not so easy to do. My restaurant had a regular customer for almost thirty years. One day, a few months ago, she approached me, as a friend, with tears in her eyes at her humiliation, and … [Read more...]